There is Hope for the Seventh-day Adventist Church . . . If We Act Fast! by Andy McDonald

The Seventh-day Adventist denomination is the place of my spiritual heritage and current practice.  I am convinced that what our denomination brings to the table of the universal Body of Christ is of great value.  For instance, to name only two—what we call the “health message” and the doctrine of Sabbath offer revolutionary enriching value for every person on our globe.  We have so much in common with other Christians, all followers of Jesus, but our ego regarding our understanding of truth combined with our easy use of excluding language often block us from even getting a hearing.

To become the force for good that I believe God could use us to be—in order for there to be hope beyond the era of denominationalism—we must make some significant changes.

•  We must recognize ourselves as part of the universal body of Christ and not the whole body of Christ.  While we may teach that officially, too often, based on remnant theology, our orthopraxis is to act as if we alone make up the whole body.

•  We must restructure for efficiency because the use of resources is a moral issue. The simplest illustration is that, in 2011 in the world, the Seventh-day Adventist Statistical Report stated that there are:

26,859 Evangelistic and Pastoral Employees and

27,788 Administrative, Promotional, Office, and Miscellaneous Employees

These kinds of ratios are not sustainable.  These are astronomical administrative costs as part of our total giving.

•  We must remove inefficiency and duplication of services from our church governance structure.  We must see the local church as the top of the church structure and every other level of governance only existing at the local church’s will and for the local church’s benefit.  In the words of Charles Bradford, former President of the North American Division, “There is no church but the local church.” As a conference treasurer recently explained, all expenses are pushed to the end user (local church and school) while—although originally generated there—very limited resources (almost non-existent as discretionary dollars) find their way back to the local level.

•  We must adopt a new attitude: “The church is not to talk about itself.  It is to be lowly in mind, not proudly boasting of its power or seeking to advance its prestige. The church cannot save the world; but the Lord of the church can.  It is not the church for which Christians are to labor and spend their lives, but for the Lord of that church.  THE CHURCH CANNOT EXALT ITS LORD WHILE IT SEEKS TO EXALT ITSELF”- Ray Stedman, Body Life, p. 18. While we are part of an organization called the Seventh-day Adventist Church, we must not be about that organization.  We must be about lifting up Jesus and baptizing people in the name of the Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit—another thing we have in common with all Christians.

Other reforms are needed, but this would be a great start. I love the church and want to see it thrive, and it can and will as we live with integrity and lift up Jesus.

Andy McDonald